The Heroes of the Iliad as Indo-European Gods: A Mythological Rosetta Stone
“Traditional characters are not “made up,” or to put it another way they’ve been shaped for centuries, in this case for millennia” - Gregory Nagy
“the ancient Greek myths about [Apollo] as well as [Achilles]—and even their names—can be traced back, precisely in the context of their roles in Homeric poetry, to an Indo-European background.” - Gregory Nagy, “Comments on Comparative Mythology 2”
Introduction
“The authors of the immense poem have explained it systematically at the beginning of the first book and recalled it many times later, that the heroes who oppose one another or cooperate are not men except in appearance. Whether they are sons or incarnations of either gods or demons, they represent in reality cosmic interests. It is the very drama of the mythical Great Times that they present, direct, or play.” (Georges Dumezil, discussing the Mahabharata in Gods of the Ancient Northmen, 56).
Comparing the Iliad to the other Indo-European epic, the Indian Mahabharata and these to the Irish Battle of Magh Tuireadh, as well as the Welsh Mabinogion and the related Celtic texts, we can see quickly that the Iliad is descended from the same tradition, the same material, but recast in a Greek form. This being plain from a host of examples which will become apparent, and following the established tradition in myth studies (Wikander, Dumezil, etc) that has shown the heroes of the Mahabharata to be specific divine incarnations, it should follow that the active figures of the Trojan War are representatives – incarnations – of the most archaic primary gods, and should carry bonafide elements of their myths. Georges Dumezil hints as much when he points out that Achilles and Arjuna come from the same original. Both are the intellectually sensitive but terrifyingly powerful princes who hold themselves back from the action to brood over some issue, questioning whether they should fight, then coming through in the end to wreak havoc on the opponent's greatest warriors at the key moments. And as Arjuna is the spiritual son of Indra, Achilles and Arjuna then are each in their own way the “chivalrous” warrior god, Indra in Vedic religion, made flesh. If this really is so, then what stops us from looking further to see if the other main gods appear in Greek guises within the pages of the Iliad?
There is nothing to assure that such a venture would be successful. There is no telling how much change the Greek version of the epic had undergone before reaching its final form, how much the characters of the heroes had been warped, merged, or even removed from the story. However, it should be remembered that the Iliad is thought to have been composed in its present form around the mid 8th century BCE, and was also written down well before the Mahabharata was, which itself preserves the characters of the gods so clearly. And when we begin to investigate the question we quickly find that the Iliad too has been surprisingly conservative in content, and a significant amount remains within the traits of the main heroes to indicate their specific divine and Indo-European origins.
In the Mahabharata, the primary protagonists, the Pandavas and their mortal father Pandu, are spiritual sons and incarnations of the gods of society: Varuna and Mitra, Vayu and Indra, Nasatya and Dasra. This makes three pairs of gods, each pair representing one of the functional levels in the tripartite social division – the Priest-Sovereigns, the Warriors, and the Producers; or, First, Second, and Third functions. On the opposing side, the Kauravas, are the incarnations of Dyaus, Surya, one of the Rudras, Bhaga, the demon Kali, and the embodiment of the Dwapara Yuga, among other warriors who may or may not have divine connections. Therefore these in particular are the gods we should look for in the heroes of the Trojan War. Doing so will help us greatly clarify these archaic Indo-European divine archetypes.
Key Combatants:
The Pandavas
Pandu: incarnation of Varuna, The Terrible Sovereign
Yudhishthira: incarnation of “Dharma” aka Mitra, The Lawful Sovereign*
Bhima: incarnation of Vayu, The Wind God
Arjuna: incarnation of Indra, The Thunderer
Nakula and Sahadeva: incarnations of the Asvins, the Horse Twins
Drishtadyumna: incarnation of Agni, The Fire God
Vidura: incarnation of Aryaman, Lord of Noble Society
* Dumezil simply states that “Dharma 'Law'” is “obviously a new form of Mitra.” This is borne out by the fact that Yudhishthira and Vidura mirror the close relationship of Mitra and Aryaman in the hymns, and is further confirmed by the large web of correspondences we find to Yudhishthira when he is understood as the Mitraic hero. It is an error to interpret “Dharma” here as Yama, god of the dead, who also bears this title. We must remember that the epic that Yudhishthira is a part of reaches back to a time when Mitra was a much more prominent god, and that, by the time of its writing down, Mitra was nearly forgotten in Indian society, while Yama was still prominent, thus leading to the common misidentification of this “Dharma” as Yama.
The Kauravas
Dhritarashtra: incarnation of Bhaga, Lord of Destiny or Apportionment
Duryodhana: incarnation of Kali, The Demon of the Dark Age
Karna: incarnation of Surya, The Sun God
Bhishma: incarnation of Dyaus Pitr, Father Sky
Ashvatthama: incarnation of one of the Rudras, Storm Attendants
Shakuni: incarnation of Dvapara, Lord of the Second-to-last-Age
Drona: incarnation of Brihaspati, High Priest of the Word
Agamemnon
Agamemnon – Varuna (The Terrible Sovereign)
Agamemnon is the older brother of Menelaus and the reigning king of Mycenae. He is known as a fierce warrior and he is acknowledged commander-in-chief of all the assembled armies. As such he represents the power of kingship. King Pandu of the Mahabharata likewise begins the events leading to the war as the king of the Kuru Kingdom. As Dumezil outlines it, the Varuna archetype is always a conqueror who expands the territory of his kingdom in the early days of his power, which is exactly what Agamemnon and Pandu are said to do. Pandu is described as swallowing up kingdoms. Similarly, after regaining his father's lost kingdom, Agamemnon's conquests make him the most powerful king in all of Greece. Agamemnon is not a peaceable ruler, and he is famous for the conflict with Achilles in which takes from him what he feels to be his own kingly due, the woman Briseis. This general character recalls the descriptor which has been applied to Varuna: “The Terrible Sovereign.” It is Varuna whose sometimes violent but vital power forges kingdoms (as seen in the case of Romulus), and it is he whose snares and spies exact justice from all within his kingdom which is the world. Agamemnon is highly destructive on the battlefield, a mirror image in fierceness of Achilles, and is known as one of the best three Greek warriors along with Ajax and Diomedes (when Achilles is not present).
While the loss of a hand is usually a trait associated with the Mitra type, the First Kings, Irish Nuada and Greek Agamemnon, both significantly sustain a wound instead to their arms, causing each to retire from battle for a period of time. This Nuada, too, is the First King, of the Irish gods known as the Tuatha de Danann, and he expands their kingdom via the war with the Fir Bolg upon first arriving in Ireland. It is possible that the loss of Nuada's arm has led to a confusion of Nuada with Mitra, who, as with his Norse counterpart, is associated with a motif of one-handedness, per Dumezil. However, it is crucial to emphasize the fact that Nuada is the First King, and this heavily positions him as a Varunian figure. The confusion of Nuada and Mitra, one of the greatest red herrings in Celtic myth, arises from the superficial likeness of arm and hand: Agamemnon and Nuada are wounded in the arm during battle while the Mitra type, Tyr, instead loses a hand during a questionable contract or oath. Understanding this difference unlocks much of the Irish mythology for proper comparison and is a key correction to Dumézil’a work, though one that he too seemed to realize later in his life based on his comments on his work in the 1970s.
Agamemnon's life is bookended by motifs very similar to those found in the story of King Pandu: Agamemnon's family had been cursed by Myrtilus as he died by Agamemnon's hand, resulting in infighting and death to several generations of the Atreides family. Pandu's curse, given to him by the Rishi Kindama as he died by Pandu's hand, was that he could not embrace his wife with intent of love and so couldn't have children at all. Both curses caused great difficulty to the accomplishing of each king's duties, and to successfully furthering their lines. Indeed, Agamemnon's own son and wife, Orestes and Clytemnestra, were also caught up by the inter-family violence resulting from the curse, while his daughter was sacrificed to the gods. In the end of Pandu's life, he one day is overwhelmed with love and embraces one of his wives, bringing about his death. Agamemnon dies when he returns home to his wife, either at the hands of his wife's lover or her own, depending on the source. Each king arguably dies as a final result of their curse and this occurs at the moment they return to their wives. Agamemnon and Menelaus also are forced into exile (related to the curse) before the events of the Trojan war, just as the Pandava brothers must endure exile before returning to fight the Kurukshetra War. Agamemnon was venerated as Zeus Agamemnon, in recognition of his embodiment of the role of sovereignty in line with the highest divine sovereign.
- Terrible Sovereign: (Agamemnon, Varuna/Pandu, Nuada)
- Has a curse that affects his progeny
- Is First King
- Expands territory
- Is exiled before the war
- Is wounded in the arm
- Exacts justice in a harsh manner which leads to conflict with the Thunderer and death of the Thunderer’s son/favorite (see part 4)
- Dies when he returns to his wife
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